


Don't Lie to Me

by Akiko_Natsuko



Series: Gratsu [59]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Blood and Injury, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Tartaros Arc (Fairy Tail), Secrets, Strained Relationships, gratsubingo2019, prompt: blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 19:22:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akiko_Natsuko/pseuds/Akiko_Natsuko
Summary: “Don’t. Lie. To. Me.” Gray had long since learned to work around Natsu’s stubbornness, but with everything his usual patience was thinner than usual, the wrongness becoming a roar in the back of his mind as he studied Natsu’s pale features, the frantic pulse in his neck as he tried to look anywhere but at Gray. “Natsu, please…”





	Don't Lie to Me

Gray jolted upright with a stifled cry, ice half-formed around his fingers before he recognised the room in the inn that had been his home for the past couple of nights, banishing the magic with a sigh. He wondered if he would ever be able to wake up and feel safe again. He knew that part of it was the fact that Fairy Tail was gone. His home, his family, disbanded just like that. As independent as he liked to be, knowing that he had the guild to come back to had kept him anchored and now that was gone. The other part of it was to do with the markings that even now were stretching up his wrist, not as willing to subside as his own ice had been, and the events that had led to him inheriting his father’s magic.

_Tartaros._

It had been nearly a month, and those events still felt as raw and painful as they had the day, they had finally claimed their ‘victory’ over the Demon gates. Perhaps, they always would, his wrist itched and burned, and he reached out to scratch it, just as a noise from the bathroom caught his attention, and he froze.

“Gray, are you…?” Natsu trailed off as he stepped into the bedroom, rubbing a towel roughly over his hair. “I guess you are awake,” he finished lamely, with the grin that had been grating on the Ice Mage’s nerves ever since he had stumbled across the Dragon-slayer the day before. It wasn’t the fact that Natsu was grinning, even though they were barely a month out of everything that had happened, and when Gray was still reeling from losing Silver and had expected Natsu to be in the same boat after watching Igneel fall. No, it was the fact that it was wrong. It wasn’t the grin that he had fallen in love when they were growing up, the smile that put a light in the olive eyes and had the power to rally his spirits in the worst situation. It was different, although he couldn’t put a finger on what had changed. Maybe there was a shadow in it. A dullness in the olive eyes that met his gaze and then darted away. Both were undoubtedly true, and yet Gray was sure that there was something more to it and yet he wasn’t sure what.

That was part of the reason he had all but pleaded that Natsu stay with him the night before. Neither of them had been in the mood, or the right frame of mind to try and rekindle the relationship that was on fragile ground after Tartaros and Natsu taking off with nothing more than a note promising that he would come back. But he hadn’t been able to let Natsu just walk away. Not when something was wrong.

“Yeah…” He replied awkwardly, realising that he had been staring as Natsu shifted from foot to foot. And there! Something tightened in Natsu’s expression, just for a minute and Gray opened his mouth, ready to demand answers when the Dragon-slayer abruptly turned away.

“I was going to go down and get breakfast if you want to join me?” At first, he had thought that Natsu meant that he wanted to go down alone, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of the complicated flip-flop that his stomach did at being included. He didn’t speak, not trusting his voice right now, feeling as though the wrong word might break this strange, fragile thing between them. That it might break Natsu because there was something vulnerable in that grin he realised. Like a light caught in the most delicate glass, ready to shatter at a moment’s notice. Instead he nodded, knowing that Natsu would catch it, even as he slid out of the bed, growling under his breath as he realised that he had shed everything but his boxers even though he had deliberately gone to bed fully dressed the night before.

He found his trousers first, yanking them on, aware that Natsu was watching him again and frowning as it dawned on him that the Fire Mage had come from the bathroom already changed, even though his hair had still been wet. It was a small difference, appropriate considering the current state of their relationship he supposed, but so at odds with how Natsu had been that it had him frowning, and watching Natsu more carefully as he hunted around for his shirt.

“Here,” Natsu broke the silence, stepping forward to retrieve the shirt that Gray had just spied sticking out from under the end of the bed, bending down to scoop it up.

Gray moved before he had fully registered the pained gasp that had accompanied the movement, or the way the colour had drained from Natsu’s face. He reached the Dragon-slayer and grabbed his arm in support just as Natsu swayed and threatened to crumple to the ground, tightening his grip to keep the other mage upright, frown deepening to a scowl as his actions made Natsu gasp. Something was wrong. Very wrong, because Natsu wasn’t trying to pull out of his grip like he usually would, in fact, he appeared to be leaning into him, resting his weight on Gray as though that was the only thing keeping him upright. “I’ve got you.” The reassurance came quickly, as natural as breathing despite everything that had happened, and he loosened his grip, gentle now as he guided the strangely, unresisting Dragon-slayer across to the bed and settling Natsu on the edge. “Where are you hurt?” He demanded.

“I’m…”

“Don’t. Lie. To. Me.” Gray had long since learned to work around Natsu’s stubbornness, but with everything his usual patience was thinner than usual, the wrongness becoming a roar in the back of his mind as he studied Natsu’s pale features, the frantic pulse in his neck as he tried to look anywhere but at Gray. “Natsu, please…” He trailed off, plea half-finished, as with a pained noise that he had a feeling was supposed to have been a laugh, but sounded closer to a groan, Natsu slowly lifted his arm that the Ice Mage hadn’t realised he had been keeping pressed closer. Now he could see the specks of red seeping into the cloth, the material clinging to Natsu’s side.

“I’m sorry,” his gaze shot back to Natsu’s face, the apology catching him by surprise, and he caught a fleeting glimpse of a proper Natsu smile, albeit a sheepish one before the Dragon-slayer toppled forward. Age-old instincts kicking in as Gray managed to catch him before he could land on the ground. Now he could feel the heat coming from Natsu’s skin, not the warmth he had learned to love, but something more dangerous, and his grip tightened, but even as worry burrowed deep, something loosened in his chest. This was something familiar. A taste of normal, of home. Of Natsu, and even as he moved to shift Natsu onto the bed so that he could look at whatever injury the idiot had been hiding from him, it felt as though he could breathe for the first time in weeks.


End file.
